


graveyards

by sweetwatersong



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thor (Movies)
Genre: Alien Technology, Alternate Universe - Space, For Science!, Gen, Peril
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-04
Updated: 2015-12-04
Packaged: 2018-05-04 20:38:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 564
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5347775
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sweetwatersong/pseuds/sweetwatersong
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jane is willing to spend her life chasing after the truth. She just didn't expect she might <i>lose</i> it because of unknown saboteurs - or lose the starship she's worked so hard to come see.</p><p>Or: A quick glimpse at a universe where Thor is still an alien, Jane is still an academic with her heart set on the stars, and danger is still around every corner. Some things never change.</p>
            </blockquote>





	graveyards

**Author's Note:**

> Day 3 of this year's 12 Days of Winter hard drive clean-out.

It wasn’t every day that an Academic got the chance to set foot on a boneyard world with an Asgardian for a guide, and Jane was planning to make the most of it. Her datareams were already a quarter full before they even made it to the sole target of her trip: the Tari cruiser leaning in almost unrecognizable, rusted glory against a support pile of other spacecraft. But despite her desire to rush forward and dive headlong into its mysteries, Jane paused in the dripping wreckage thirty paces from the prize and scanned the vast, beached body of the starship again.

"This installation was supposedly lost thirty cycles ago, right?"

"Aye," Thor confirmed, shoulders hunched as he bent over a mangled piece of hull.

"Then why," she continued slowly, the crease between her eyebrows deepening, "are the power conduits still sparking?"

The silence was answer enough. He rose to his feet to meet her gaze, troubled worry clearly outlined in his alien features. In the heartbeat that everything stood perfectly still, Jane had the ridiculous idea that she could feel her own heart thumping, could hear the blood rushing through her veins.

"Run."

Jane took him at his word and bolted, rusted metal crunching under her tac boots, her carry-bag banging against her hip with the equipment she had stowed in it for the survey. She couldn’t look back, had no idea how close the Asgardian might be behind her, no idea why he hadn’t already passed her -

The concussive wave of the explosion slammed ruthlessly into her, turning the world into a haze of white light and sound. Her feet left the ruined ground, her body pitched forward - and an arm wrapped around her waist, catching her when she would have crashed into the ground. It yanked her to the left, maneuvering her behind the meager safety of a rusted-out ScramJam they had passed on their way in.

Thor pulled her down beside him as he turned his head up, watching the sky over the transport’s hull. She plastered herself against the ancient metal on instinct, mimicking his pose, before she fought to catch her breath to ask what the hell was going on. Before she had the chance her question was answered: a blistering heat washed over the ScramJam, the final remnants of the fireball the Tari starship had turned into. Jane flinched away from the bubbling haze, ducking closer to the metal-laden ground to escape the searing air.

When it vanished and the ringing in her ears softened, she looked over at Thor. The Asgardian’s eyes were grim as he inclined his head.

"Thank you, Foster. If you had not noticed…"

"Don’t thank me yet," she panted, ignoring the burn of her scraped knees. Apparently even Duratough fabric had its limits, and diving around in a ship graveyard was one of them. "Because someone’s trying to kill us, aren’t they?"

"So it would seem."

"Great." Anger rose up to bubble away the panic, letting her focus on something other than the seconds when her life had flashed before her eyes. It was easier to be angry at someone else than to deal with what she had felt in those moments, easier to be angry with people who had just blown up a priceless vessel she had only just discovered - "And I didn’t even get scans on that ship, damn it!”


End file.
